Appalachian State University, where I've spent the last four years of my life (yes, I finished in four.)

I couldn't have picked a better college to attend for my undergraduate studies. So much has happened in those short four years. And everything has been an amazing blessing, either outright or in disguise.

I was in the car with my best friend my senior year of high school, April 17th to be exact, when I got a phone call from an 828 area code I had never seen before. I answered the phone, and a sweet lady on the other end told me that she was calling from the admissions office of Appalachian State University and this was the last call she was making, and that it was the last day for admission to the university. She went on to say that she wanted to congratulate me, for I had been officially accepted to attend App State in the fall of 2013.

That was one of the most surreal moments of my life. It was a life trajectory alteration, a major one, and one that came at exactly the right moment.

With that, plans happened, things were purchased... Lots of things. And in what felt like the blink of an eye, I was moving into Appalachian State's Lovill Residence Hall, back then an all-male dorm. Classes began, I made some friends and some people I thought were friends, lost them, gained a best friend (who is still there for me today; we're walking the stage at graduation together,) and made up with a few burnt bridges. Freshman year was a difficult transition for me from how I was to who I wanted to become. It was a wake-up call, and I heeded it.

Insert an incredibly entertaining Boone summer experience, because I moved into the Cottages of Boone at the end of freshman year. I miss living there. Pardon the cliche, but it was LIT.

Then sophomore year came, and not long after it did I met a man I would presumably settle down with. We had our ups and our downs, our lows were depressing, but our highs were the highest, so things balanced each other out. We remained together throughout the remainder of sophomore year, where we went on some of my more memorable adventures in the Blue Ridge Mountains. There weren't very many dull moments during sophomore year, and I continued to grow and develop into the man I wanted to be.

My boyfriend and I moved out of the Cottages the summer after my sophomore year and into our very first joint apartment together, and things were different. Junior year began, and I was invited to assist in forming a new chapter of a fraternity that year, and soon afterward, my boyfriend and I broke up because he claimed I had "chosen my frat brothers" over him. And he was right (sort of): after we had broken up, I did. And I'm grateful I did, too. Those guys gave me a place I felt that I could be me and yet be part of a group, something much, much larger than myself. That would later come to an end, but it nonetheless made a tremendous impact on my outlook on life. I passed junior year with their support and tough love, and looked onward to what was expected to be the most epic year of all.

Senior year. Holy cow, I had made it. How great is was to be a senior! And then that feeling was overshadowed when I was ejected from the fraternity. The way I see it, personally, is that I'm very outspoken, I'm way more liberal than conservative, and I'm an open member of the LGBT community. Those factors, apparently along with my "overactive presence on social media platforms" were enough for the guys to say "We don't want you here anymore." It was a long, painful, drawn-out, and ugly process. It took a toll on my mental, physical, and emotional health, and i personally feel as if I was robbed, though that isn't the consensus of the masses. Nevertheless, I pushed forward through the stress of senior year, keeping in sight that oh-so-surreal, deja vu-type day where I would go to pick up my graduation regalia (that happened this week.)

Now here I sit, a week or less away from walking the stage at the Holmes Convocation Center, on the verge of beginning my internship this summer.

I can't believe I made it, but I have.

I couldn't have done it without each and every experience, every person or group or class or professor that I have interacted with, all the trials and the family I lost along the way, every heartache drove me to strengthen my resolve even more, pushing me to succeed. My family members loved and supported my endeavors unconditionally, and I feel like the most blessed person on Earth for their love and dedication.

Appalachian State is close to my heart, in many different ways and for many reasons, but I think the most important reason why I am so grateful and blessed to have attended such an outstanding institution of higher learning is because I was able to attend it to begin with, starting with that phone call I received five minutes before the end of the admissions period.

Thank you, Appalachian State University, my (almost) alma mater.